Releasing butterflies can be a wonderful experience, the culmination of a month's journey in the classroom.
Create some ceremony! Observe what they do upon release. Make a list of possible behaviors, draw up a data sheet, and have one student record what everyone sees.
.jpg)
I'm grateful to teachers who offer their students a chance to see monarchs. I encounter many grown-ups who tell me seeing butterflies emerge was a memorable experience from their own childhood.
Here's a list of steps teachers can take to improve the classroom experience...
Make sure you don't miss eclosure
Isn't that one of the main reasons you provide monarchs? What a shame to miss it! Eclosure timing is easily controlled. Other transitions--hatching, molting, forming the J, and forming the chrysalid--are harder to see. But possible... and rewarding!
Make sure monarchs are easily visible
Improve visibility. House caterpillars or butterflies where you can easily see them through clear glass, or an open lid. Glass aquaria aren't expensive; used ones are available. Provide good lighting. Caterpillars like light. LED lights won't overheat them.
When the weather turns cool (below 70 F), cloudy, or rainy, laying slows or stops because monarchs are so affected by temperature. They prefer 84 degrees F.
Your potential for future eggs is good if you have several mated females. When warm weather returns, they'll probably lay. But what to do if you need eggs now? Here's what I tried:
Butterflies are slower to give up their secrets.
Those of us producing eggs for schools are under pressure to deliver the goods. We need to predict if the butterflies will lay enough for the orders we have.
So, we have to read their minds. "Feeling romantic? In the mood to lay?" Here's how to find out what's on their mind.
When they first hatch, monarch caterpillars are only about 2 millimeters long. For tiny critters, the world is a dangerous place. Watch a freshly hatched caterpillar deal with two hazards...
I've described the entire breeding strategy and setup elsewhere.
But if you opened the honeymoon hotel and no eggs appeared, here are some tips.
Because non-reproductive butterflies begin to eclose about mid-August, the proportion of non-breeders increases.
It's confusing... How can you spot the ones that can breed, vs the migratory ones? And for the recently eclosed butterflies that might be breeders, how do you know when they are ready to mate or lay?